Today there exist countless numbers of pools, both indoor and out, as well as lakes and other facilities for recreational swimming. Although there exist innumerable recreational facilities for swimming, a significant portion of every community does not know how to swim. A large section of those individuals unable to swim include children. Unfortunately, these circumstances lead to an unnecessarily high number of deaths caused by drowning each year. Therefore, there exists a need for safe and efficient techniques to quickly teach individuals, especially children, how to swim.
It is well known in the art today that there exist life preservers and other flotation devices attachable to an individual which increases their buoyancy and which help prevent drowning. However, all too often these devices fail to address the true problem of teaching children how to swim. Moreover, life preservers restrict the movement necessary for children to learn the proper swimming strokes and techniques. In addition, when such devices are attached to the body by buckles or other fasteners they may easily become undone, either accidentally or purposefully, especially when used by children. Furthermore, when flotation devices are directly attached to an individual they are often exposed and susceptible to puncture or damage during use of the same. Moreover, these devices often fail to deal with the various levels of competency a learning swimmer will experience during their training on how to be a safe and proficient swimmer.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for increasing the rate at which an individual can learn how to be a safe and proficient swimmer.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method that enhances the buoyancy of swimmers in correlation with the swimmer's level of competency.